“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” -Matthew 5:48.
Early in the New Testament, Jesus declared the above verse in the sermon on the mount, and as a young Christian it weighed upon me heavily; for even though my need to grow in Christ-likeness was obvious, the call for PERFECTION seemed far out of reach, and I didn’t know where to begin. Thankfully, for we earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7), God has promised to provide ALL the instruction we need to pursue this goal in His Word, assuring us that;
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” -2 Timothy 3:16,17. Bold type is added.
Yes! That precious Holy scripture in our hands isn’t only the very basis of Christian faith, but it does also contain in it everything we need for living out the Christian lives God expects; NOT that we can ever be perfect while still in the flesh (Romans 7:18), but God doesn’t want us to look further than scripture for direction toward that goal.
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” -Jesus, in John 17:17.
God’s Word forwards this great promise to us in the King James Bible, yet the Bible revisions seem to HATE the word, “perfect,” and diminish the full scope of how Jesus said we should please our Father; and they do this by altering the rendering of the word “perfect,” to adequate in the New American Standard Bible; changing it to the word “complete” in the English Standard Bible, and drop it altogether in Today’s New International Bible, the New King James Bible, and the New International Bible.
All Bible versions but the King James are taken from the Revised Translation of 1884; a revision work which claimed it was only done in order to “update the language” of the King James Bible to make it more understandable. Yet all it takes are simple comparisons between the King James and new Bible versions to easily show this isn’t what happened. You may follow the link here to a video with more information on this important topic, and also check out the Bible version resources at www.chick.com.
The Bible forecasts that in these Last Days iniquity shall abound (Matthew 24:12), and the transgressors will come to the full (Daniel 8:23); so it’s more imperative than ever that our spiritual houses be founded upon the true Word of God for weathering these great storms. Today, while there’s still time, let us seek to lay aside any remaining corruption (Hebrews 12:1), and receive with meekness God’s engrafted Word (James 1:21), which is able to save our souls.
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” -Matthew 7:24,25.
“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” -Psalm 12:6,7.
I also have a short YouTube video on this subject that can be found at https://youtube.com/shorts/K4U_5CLCLDE?feature=share.
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